1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of lipid-droplet cell biology.
2. Related Art
Presented below is background information on certain aspects of the present invention as they may relate to technical features referred to in the detailed description, but not necessarily described in detail. The discussion below should not be construed as an admission as to the relevance of the information to the claimed invention or the prior art effect of the material described.
Eukaryotic cells store neutral lipids in cytoplasmic lipid droplets1,2 enclosed in a monolayer of phospholipids and associated proteins3,4. These dynamic organelles5 serve as the principal reservoirs for cellular energy storage and the building blocks for membrane lipids. Excessive lipid accumulation in cells is a central feature of diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and atherosclerosis, yet remarkably little is known about lipid-droplet cell biology. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a better understanding of the role of lipid droplets in disease.
Rising oil prices and greenhouse emissions have caused a renewed interest in biofuels. Biofuels can be broadly defined as solid, liquid, or gas fuels derived from recently dead biological material, most commonly plants. This distinguishes it from fossil fuel, which is derived from long dead biological material. Biofuels can be theoretically produced from any (biological) carbon source. The most common by far is photosynthetic plants that capture solar energy. Many different plants and plant-derived materials are used for biofuel manufacture. For example, sugar crops (sugar cane, sugar beet, and sweet sorghum) or starch (corn/maize) may be grown and then fermented by yeast to produce ethanol (ethyl alcohol). Alternatively, plants that (naturally) produce oils, such as oil palm, soybean, algae, or jatropha may be grown. When these oils are heated, their viscosity is reduced, and they can be burned directly in a diesel engine, or the oils can be chemically processed to produce fuels such as biodiesel. One of the greatest technical challenges is to develop efficient ways to convert biomass energy into biofuels. In particular, it has been difficult to find sources of biomass that naturally contain a high concentration of oils. Accordingly, there is a need in the art to develop strategies for developing new, oil-rich sources for the production of biofuels.
Specific Patents and Publications
U.S. Pat. No. 7,135,308, issued Nov. 14, 2006 to Bush et al, titled “Process for the production of ethanol from algae,” describes a process for the production of ethanol by harvesting starch-accumulating filament-forming or colony-forming algae to form a biomass, initiating cellular decay of the biomass in a dark and anaerobic environment, fermenting the biomass in the presence of a yeast, and the isolating the ethanol produced.
US Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0006792, by Filatti et al, titled “Nucleic acid constructs and methods for producing altered seed oil compositions” discloses recombinant nucleic acid molecules, constructs, and other agents associated with the coordinate manipulation of multiple genes in the fatty acid synthesis pathway. In particular, the agents disclosed there are associated with the simultaneous enhanced expression of certain genes in the fatty acid synthesis pathway and suppressed expression of certain other genes in the same pathway. Also described there are plants incorporating such agents, and in particular plants incorporating such constructs where the plants exhibit altered seed oil compositions. The oil from the plants may be used as a diesel fuel. This application provides guidance for carrying out transformations using the present gene constructs and other teachings below.
US Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0043389, by McCarthy, titled “Methods and compositions for identifying risk factors for abnormal lipid levels and the diseases and disorders associated therewith” provides nucleic acid molecules and methods for using polymorphic regions of DNA that are associated with abnormal lipid levels and associated disorders to determine risk for a disease. This application provides guidance for carrying out diagnostic tests using the present gene constructs and other teachings below.
Work of the present inventors was published by them in Nature 453, 657-661 (29 May 2008).